


Young Blood

by 0bviousLeigh



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Baira Faust Genome and Kogami are getting the axe, Other, and there will be murder of the Knights of Hanoi, if VRAINS were a revenge-murder anime, it will be violent and bloody, starting in chapter 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-13
Updated: 2018-09-14
Packaged: 2019-07-11 16:00:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15975677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0bviousLeigh/pseuds/0bviousLeigh
Summary: Shoichi finally had a name for that thing he felt in the hospital—bloodlust. Whatever those people did to his little brother, he was going to do it back to them tenfold. He was going to make them pay, and he was going to love every minute of it. // Shoichi and Yusaku get revenge for the Lost Incident.





	1. Young Blood

**Author's Note:**

> Please heed the warnings, people are going to die in this story. I find VRAINS hard to watch because it is, at its core, a story about the torture of children. I don't find any of the Knights of Hanoi to be redeemable characters for this reason, including Revolver and Specter (however those two are not major players in this story and are only mentioned in passing).
> 
> So basically if you were to hand me the core plot of VRAINS and tell me to make a show about it, I'd make it a bloodbath. So that's what I did, and that starts in the second chapter.

Shoichi thought everything would be okay once Jin came home. He kept thinking that one morning he would wake up and Jin would be back in his bed, sleeping peacefully. Why shouldn’t his little brother reappear as suddenly as he had disappeared? The police kept saying that the longer they couldn’t find Jin, the more likely it was he would never return. To Shoichi, that didn’t make sense. How could the police not know where his little brother was? How could they think that just because they couldn’t find him, no one else ever would? Shoichi had lost a lot of things for longer than Jin had been lost, but he always found them eventually. Surely, his brother would come back. Jin was so sweet and good, surely someone would find him, and Jin would tell that person where he lived, and they would bring him home, and everything would be okay again.

“It’ll be okay,” Shoichi would whisper to himself. He believed it, and he believed it strongly enough that one day, Jin did come home.

But Shoichi needed only to look into his little brother’s face to realize that nothing was okay, not for Jin at least. Seeing him in the hospital for the first time in six months…Shoichi was terrified for his little brother. Worse yet, the doctors had no way of explaining what had caused a formerly bright, bubbly child to become a ghost.

“There were six children,” a police officer said in the hall outside Jin’s room. “None of them are talking yet, but we need you to be prepared to hear anything.”

“Anything?” Mom repeated, “Like what? What do you think they did to my boy?”

The doctor answered, “Ma’am, your son is malnourished and dehydrated, and he seems to have been abused.”

Mom had sobbed, handkerchief pressed to her mouth. Dad steadied her with his hands on her sides. Shoichi watched it all—it seemed like everyone had forgotten he was there.

“This is difficult to ask,” the police officer said, “But, if we have reason to believe it is necessary, we would like your permission to do a sexual assault kit.”

Mom had fallen to the floor in a dead faint. Dad’s face went white, then green. Down the hall, Shoichi felt like he wanted to die, but he felt something else as well, something that he wouldn’t be able to put a name to until he was much older.

When the other children started talking, Shoichi was briefly relieved to hear that none of them were sexually violated, but he was horrified to learn of what had actually happened to them. He and Jin had played duel monsters together for years, it had been fun! How could someone kidnap his brother and hurt him because of it? Who would have wanted to do that, and why?

For a long time, Shoichi had faith that the police would catch the bad guys, just like he had faith that the doctors would make Jin better. He was a child, and he had only to wait for the adults to fix everything, because that was what adults did.

Jin was released from the hospital without ever having said a word, or made eye contact with anyone. Mom and dad made sure he was well looked after, with two caregivers on staff at all times to watch him. The aides talked to him, read to him, fed him, and dressed him. Mom and dad built an indoor pool because Jin had always loved swimming, and the aides took him swimming at least once a day. Mom and dad had to go back to work, but they gave Jin a hug and a kiss every morning, and he never looked at them. The doctors said he might never say a word or look at anyone again. It took a while for Shoichi to grow up and understand that the doctors did everything right, and there were some traumas that they simply couldn’t heal.

The police used to call them every week, but after about a year the calls became once a month, then every few months, and soon they stopped altogether. By that time Shoichi had given up hope that the police would do anything. By then, he had realized that he couldn’t sit back and wait. He was a kid, but so was Jin before he had been stolen, and those people had done something to rip apart his little brothers’ very soul.

Shoichi finally had a name for that thing he felt in the hospital—bloodlust. Whatever those people did to his little brother, he was going to do it back to them tenfold. He was going to make them pay, and he was going to love every minute of it.

 

* * *

 

It had taken years to finally track this guy down. It had taken almost everything Shoichi had to get to this moment, but at last he is perfectly positioned in the outdoor eating area of a little café, right next to the company that had been behind his brother’s kidnapping, and today the CEO is visiting that company. Dr. Kiyoshi Kogami lived abroad and very rarely visited his main branch of operations—Shoichi doesn’t know when he might next get a chance to see the man responsible for ruining Jin’s life.

Shoichi scrolls through a blog post and sips his coffee, counting down the seconds. Kogami’s life is planned out by the minute, which is exactly how Shoichi likes things, it makes it so much easier to plan his own day. Sure enough at 10 on the dot, a limo rolls up to the curb and several employees come tumbling out of the building. Kogami exits the limo, and the business men and women practically fall over themselves to greet him. Shoichi bites back a hiss, watching them grovel and scrape at the monster’s feet. Do they know who that man is? Would they care if they did?

Kogami pays little attention to the people surrounding him. Shoichi looks him over—the man is terribly ordinary, which makes it even worse. Of course no one knows what he is, he looks like a human being, not a devil. But Kogami’s expression gives away his true nature. His eyes are dead, bored with everything they see. He doesn’t pay attention to the people around him because to him they don’t matter. He’s above them, they’re ants compared to him. He’s smarter and more powerful than they can dare to dream, and they can’t touch him.

Shoichi pictures going up to Kogami and bumping into him on purpose, smiling and apologizing for being so clumsy. He pictures Kogami scoffing and brushing off his suit before turning back to his original business, only to realize that his throat suddenly feels tight. He pictures Kogami’s eyes widening as he reaches for his throat. He pictures Kogami’s tongue swelling, his face going blue, and his throat closing. He pictures the man’s eyes bulging as he gasps fruitlessly for any air at all…

“Shit,” Shoichi gasps. There’s a kid in a hoodie approaching, too fast to be a casual passerby, and the bulge in his front pocket is too big to be a phone.

Shoichi leaps to his feet and barrels toward the kid—he’s mere steps away from Kogami—he pushes past the business people, going right behind Kogami, and he skids to a halt in the middle of the kids’ path.

“Buddy!” Shoichi cried loudly, “How ya been?!”

The kid looks at him wide-eyed, in fact Shoichi can’t see much besides his eyes, given how the hoodie swallows the rest of his face. Everyone within earshot looks around at them. Shoichi smiles and wags his finger at the kid. “Man, I ain’t seen you in ten years but I’d recognize you anywhere!”

The kids’ expression goes from shock to anger to fear to blank in less than two seconds. The group behind Shoichi moves along, ushering Kogami into the building. The kids’ eyes follow Kogami until the building’s doors close, and then he turns back to Shoichi, fury back on his face.

“Do you have any idea what you just did?” The kid snarls.

Shoichi keeps smiling. “I just saved you from making the biggest mistake of your life. Where the fuck did you even get a gun?”

The shock is back. Shoichi holds out his arm, careful not to touch the kid, and laughs as he steers them both back to the table he had been sitting at. Nobody is looking at them anymore, at least not that Shoichi can see.

“Smile,” Shoichi says, gesturing for the kid to sit, “Don’t draw attention.”

The kid doesn’t smile, but he does sit, and at least he doesn’t look like he’s about to die of fright anymore either. “Who are you?” The kid asks.

“The guy who is trying to take down Hanoi,” Shoichi says, “And you damn near almost blew it for me.”

“If you want to take down Hanoi then you should have let me do what I came here to do,” the kid hisses.

Traffic is busy, even at this time of day. Shoichi looks into the kids’ eyes and barely speaks above a whisper. “What, murder a guy in public?” He asks. “What would that do, besides land you in jail? Also, you’re too hyped up to land the shot, I doubt you’d even mortally wound him. Besides if Kogami dies, he takes everything with him.”

“Who cares?!” The kid demands, managing to keep his voice down despite his anger, “That guy deserves to die.”

“No,” Shoichi says, “He deserves to suffer. A quick death in public is too good for him.”

That makes the kid pause. Shoichi casually glances around to make sure no one is looking at them. “Ten years,” he says, and the kid flinches. “Yeah, I saw you react to that earlier.”

The kids’ eyes drop to his lap. “How did you know?”

“I can’t think of anyone else who would be after this guy,” Shoichi says. He’s aware that this might be a trap, but he highly doubts it. He can tell that this kid is like Jin—his face is sunken in like the life has left him, he’s afraid to draw attention, and he’s got eyes that have seen monsters walking among real people—this kid is a victim.

“Were you…were you taken?” The kid asks.

“My brother,” Shoichi says quietly. “He never came back from that place, not mentally at least. His body is at home, sitting in front of the TV or pushing food around his plate, but his head is still back there.”

Tears well up in the kids’ eyes. “I want them to pay,” he says through clenched teeth.

“Easy,” Shoichi breathes. “Not here. Do you trust me?”

“No,” the kid says immediately.

“I don’t blame you,” Shoichi agrees, “But this is not the place.”

The kid seems to agree, albeit reluctantly. Shoichi finishes up his coffee and fishes the receipt and a pen out of his jacket pocket. “So my food truck is called Café Nagi,” he says, his tone light and conversational. He writes the address on the back of the receipt. “I open at 12 and I’m pretty busy from then until 3, but you know, feel free to drop by whenever.” He hands the receipt to the kid. “We can talk more once things calm down,” he says. He walks away without waiting for a response.

Of course it then hits Shoichi that he’s potentially adding a second person into everything he’s planned out, which means his blueprints are going to need some serious restructuring. Goddamnit all.

 

* * *

 

Shoichi forces himself back into his routine, because it’s the only thing that keeps him from losing it most days. He wakes up, he does some checking up on his current targets, then he gets the food truck ready, and then he just keeps busy until he feels like closing.

In fact, Shoichi doesn’t need the income from the food truck to survive. His parents said that as long as he did _something_ they would continue to support him financially, he didn’t need to go out and become a hot dog chef and make the effort to build his own truck and get it certified to serve food, but it was something he and Jin used to talk about. Actually, as kids they talked about having their own ice cream truck and driving around just giving out free ice cream to people, but now he’s an adult and realizes that no matter how rich his parents are, that’s simply unsustainable. His relatives always ask why he chose hot dogs, and he always answers with “Why not?” Actually, it was just the next thing that came to him after ice cream.

But he can really do a lot with hot dogs, and the truck has a pretty extensive menu. A couple of blogs have even featured him, and while he’s by no means successful enough to start a chain of food trucks, he likes that it gives him something to focus on besides his homicidal fantasies, and he donates the money he makes to various charities. This month he’s donating his profits to an elephant conservation foundation.

It’s been several days since he ran into the kid, but one evening he finally gets a break in customers and sees a lone figure, wearing a dark hoodie, sitting at a bench near the overlook. Shoichi leans on the counter and waits, and after a few seconds the kid turns and looks at him. Shoichi smiles, and the kid gets up and walks over.

“Can I make you anything?” Shoichi asks.

The kid glances at the menu, but shakes his head. “No thanks, I’m not hungry.”

Shoichi nods. He reaches into his back pocket and takes out two pictures, handing one to the kid. “That’s me and my brother. It was taken about a week before he went missing.”

The kid stares at the photo. Shoichi and Jin had gone to a baseball game with their oldest cousin, and she had taken a picture of them as they clutched snow cones and smiled big for the camera. Then Shoichi hands the kid the second photo. “This is Jin at his last birthday party. He turned sixteen.”

It had been a subdued affair, but his mom had put a party hat on Jin’s head and lit a candle on his cake. Shoichi posed with his arm around Jin’s shoulders and smiled, but Jin kept his head down for the picture. Shoichi’s pretty sure Jin didn’t hate the party, and he ate all his cake, but it hurt to see him looking so…absent.

The kid stares hard at the second picture. Shoichi thinks he sees the kid blink back tears, but maybe he’s projecting.

“His name is Jin?” The kid asks quietly.

Shoichi nods.

“He’s my age,” the kid says.

“I thought so,” Shoichi says. “I’m Shoichi, by the way.”

The kid looks up. How did Shoichi not notice how green his eyes are? They stand out, he’s going to have to remember that.

“I’m Yusaku.”

Shoichi is surprised the kid actually gave him a name. “Nice to meet you properly, Yusaku. You must be quite the hacker if you figured out who Kogami was and how to find him.”

Yusaku pushes back his hood. “You must have quite the master plan, seeing as you didn’t let me kill him,” he says quietly.

Shoichi grins. “Oh believe me, I have it all worked out. Want to see?”

Of course he does. Shoichi closes the truck down early and invites Yusaku in to his base of operations.

“Wow,” Yusaku says as he looks around, “It’s a lot bigger than it looks.”

Shoichi pulls up his list of names, his charts, and his surveillance screens. Yusaku’s face darkens as he looks at the list of names.

“I know that one,” he says, pointing to a person midway down the list.

The list is only halfway complete, some people are missing photos, some people he hasn’t been able to find a name for. Every person he tracked down using what little information Jin and the other kids had given the police (once he hacked into the police records and downloaded the files on the kidnappings). The person Yusaku is pointing to goes by the nickname Dr. Genome.

“He’s the person I most want to identify,” Shoichi says.

“And then?” Yusaku prompts.

Shoichi shrugs. “Kill him, of course.”

He had told Jin that he was looking for the people who hurt him. When he showed Jin a bunch of pictures and asked him to pick out Dr. Genome, Jin took one look at the man’s picture and started crying. Shoichi comforted him, and Jin calmed down quickly, but he uttered one of the few things he’d ever said in Shoichi’s presence, _“Get him for me, please.”_

“How?” Yusaku demands.

Shoichi purses his lips. “How am I going to kill him? I don’t know. I know where I will do it, and how I will cover it up.” He looks at Yusaku’s face. The kid had the guts or the stupidity to try and shoot someone in broad daylight, he doesn’t seem too worked up about morality. “Want to help me?”

Yusaku’s eyes get wide, then he frowns. “Why would you want my help?”

“As I said, you clearly have talent, and I’m not about to refuse that,” Shoichi says. “Plus, you’re the only other victim of Hanoi and the Lost Incident that I’ve met besides my brother. He’s in no shape to go on a crusade of revenge, but I’m not going to deny that to you.”

Yusaku is silent for a few seconds. Finally he asks, “When?”

“Not right now,” Shoichi says. “We don’t even know his name, and that’s important.” He points to a woman at the top of the list—codename Baira, real name Dr. Kyoko Taki. “She’s the one we need to start with. We find her, we take her computers and Hanoi company passwords, and get her to reveal any information she might have on Dr. Genome. Then we kill her, but make it look like a totally random thing, a break in or something.” Shoichi crosses his arms. “I can’t stress this enough—we need to be careful. If Kogami suspects that we’re after him, he’ll destroy all the information about the project rather than bury it further. I’m out for revenge, sure, but first I want to know why he picked the kids he picked, and why he thought it was necessary. I want to find out what makes Kogami tick, I want to know him inside and out so I know how to bring him down lower than he brought my brother.”

Yusaku swallows. His eyes are bright. “What are you going to do?” He asks.

Shoichi leans forward. “I’m going to expose him. I’ll do what I can to keep the victims’ identities secret, but I want to release as much information about the project as possible. Jin said there were cameras on him all the time. He said he cried and screamed and begged. Maybe it’s wrong of me, but I asked Jin and he…well, he didn’t seem opposed to the idea of putting the audio of all that online. I figure if enough people hear my six-year-old brother begging for mercy, I may not even need to kill Kogami with my own hands.”

Yusaku wraps his arms around himself, nails digging into his arms. “Me, too,” he says. “You can put whatever audio they have of me online, too. You can even use mine instead of your brothers’ if you want.”

“You sure?” Shoichi says.

Yusaku growls, “I want them to know! I want everyone to know what happened to me! I want the police who let it get covered up to hear me screaming and agonize because they didn’t try to arrest anyone, and I want politicians and investors and everyone involved in covering it up to know that I was tortured, and I want them to lose sleep like I lose sleep…!”

“Yusaku,” Shoichi interrupts, “Breathe.”

Yusaku closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. He slowly unhooks his fingers from his arms. If not for the thick hoodie, Shoichi is sure Yusaku would have left deep welts in his skin, if not drawn blood. Jin’s done that before.

“Sorry,” Yusaku says quietly.

Shoichi shakes his head. “No, you have nothing to be sorry for.”

Yusaku opens his eyes again.

“I can’t begin to understand how you feel,” Shoichi continues. “I wasn’t there but…my brother…” he rubs a hand over his face. “God, he was the happiest kid. My parents worked abroad, but they were good, they came home as often as they could and they loved us both so damn much and made sure we knew it. We used to put on puppet shows for them whenever they came home, and Jin always made the puppets ‘cause I was shit at crafts. When he was kidnapped—and I still have no idea how the fuck they got him—but god my whole family was a mess. We’ll never be able to go back to how we were, because we all feel so damn guilty. I would give anything to have taken Jin’s place, my parents feel like they didn’t protect him enough, and now they just don’t know what to do for him, they can’t make him better and it kills them. And I wanna know what the fuck Kogami wanted that he had to _ruin_ all of us. We only had six years as a family and…I don’t even know how much of it my brother remembers. He’s going to live the majority of his life like…”

“A ghost?” Yusaku finishes.

Shoichi’s throat is tight. “Yeah.”

Yusaku leans against the fridge. “My parents try,” he says quietly. “They got me therapy, they gave me space, they said they’ll support me no matter what. They make excuses for me, they try to make things easy for me, but they just don’t…they can’t understand.” Yusaku laughs. “Of course, I don’t tell them that what I want is to find everyone and rip their throats out.”

That makes Shoichi’s eyebrows raise. Rip their throats out? Damn.

Yusaku looks worried, so Shoichi holds up his hands. “Hey, no judgement,” he says. “Like I said, I can’t imagine what you must be feeling.”

Yusaku looks absolutely relieved. “You do get it,” he says, incredulous. “Oh my god. I thought I was insane.”

“I don’t think you’re insane,” Shoichi says firmly. “I think we’re both completely justified.”

Yusaku smiles. It’s a small one, but it’s a smile nonetheless.

“We’re in this together now, yeah?” Shoichi confirms, holding out his hand.

Yusaku nods, and takes his hand. “Together,” he says.

“That means no shooting Kogami in the head in broad daylight,” Shoichi says.

Yusaku nods, then says, “I wasn’t going to shoot him in the head.”

That is surprising. “Where were you going to aim for?”

Yusaku hesitates. “Um…his crotch.”

Shoichi bursts out laughing, and it’s quite a while before he stops.

“That,” he finally wheezes, “Is amazing.”

 

* * *

 

Yusaku shows up to the food truck every afternoon, like clockwork, at exactly 12. He arrives in a school uniform, so Shoichi figures he must be skipping. While Shoichi serves customers, Yusaku combs through the information Shoichi has managed to siphon from Hanoi Inc. It’s all coded, and buried somewhere in it is Dr. Kyoko Taki’s employment records, which will have everything from her home address to her social security number. Certainly they could find out where she lives by other means, but that would mean leaving an internet search trail. Shoichi is positive that no one will be able to trace him through the little bit of information he stole, so that’s how they’re working.

“Do you think any of them had kids?” Yusaku asks one day, about a week after they first started working together.

Shoichi looks up from the onions and peppers he’s frying. “I know Kogami does, but I hope none of the rest do.”

Yusaku looks up in shock. “Kogami has a kid?”

“I know right?” Shoichi says, “A son. God, can you imagine?”

“How do you know?” Yusaku asks.

“I hacked the security cameras in his office once, only for a few minutes,” Shoichi explains, “He had pictures of the kid on his desk. The family resemblance is striking.”

“How do you know it wasn’t a nephew, or other family member?”

“Gut feeling?” Shoichi offers. “He also had a sticker from some foreign high school on his filing cabinet, I looked it up and got the list of students, there’s a kid with his last name enrolled there. Why would he have his nephew’s high school sticker on his filing cabinet?”

“That’s hardly solid evidence,” Yusaku says.

“I guess not,” Shoichi agrees, “But it’s pretty good circumstantial evidence.”

It’s so nice to have someone to talk to. Shoichi’s been living on his own for two years now, and he still talks to his parents and sees Jin as often as he can, and he has the customers to make small talk with, but it’s not the same as having someone _with him_. He and Yusaku are working together, they have a shared goal, and they have an understanding of each other. It’s something Shoichi didn’t even realize that he was missing.

The afternoon rush starts, and Yusaku gets engrossed in the code, so the conversation ends, but it’s nice to know that Yusaku is still there.

“Are you cutting class?” Shoichi finally asks, hours later as he’s washing dishes.

“Huh? School’s over,” Yusaku says, sounding dazed.

Shoichi grabs a bottle of water and goes over to Yusaku, clearing his throat. Yusaku looks away from the computer screen. His eyes are red and tired.

“You don’t have to work for hours straight,” Shoichi says, handing Yusaku the water. “And you don’t have to skip school to come here.”

Yusaku looks down at himself, seemingly just realizing he’s still wearing his uniform. “I wouldn’t stay past lunch anyway,” he says. “That’s when we have like, gym, language, and college prep classes and all that, and I don’t do gym, I already have proficiency in English and Chinese, and…” he trails off.

Shoichi changes the subject. “Have you eaten today?”

“I’m not hungry,” Yusaku says.

Shoichi has yet to see Yusaku eat anything, the kid only consumes water, sports drinks, and occasionally coffee in his presence. Jin doesn’t like eating in front of people either, though.

At night, Yusaku and Shoichi go their separate ways. Shoichi doesn’t ask where Yusaku lives, and Yusaku doesn’t ask him, but Shoichi is pretty sure Yusaku lives alone as well. One day, Shoichi’s going to ask Yusaku if he wants to move in with him. The company would be nice.

 

* * *

 

Shoichi’s so busy with customers that he has no idea when Yusaku actually fell asleep, but by the time he’s able to stop and breathe, Yusaku is slumped over the computer desk, out cold.

Shoichi puts a bell on the counter and takes a seat next to Yusaku. He looks at the computer screen, and his jaw drops. Yusaku did it, he decoded the information on Dr. Taki! Quickly, he starts to read. She lives close to Hanoi Inc., she’s in her thirties, and the employment information even lists what kind of car she drives. Damn, that’s helpful but creepy.

Shoichi starts formulating a plan. He hacks into nearby traffic cameras, he looks up what businesses are along her drive home and makes a list of ones that might have security cameras. He’s so absorbed that it takes a minute for him to realize that Yusaku is having a nightmare.

Yusaku is quiet, but Shoichi realizes that he’s breathing heavily, and he’s tensed up. Shoichi abandons his plans and instead kneels next to Yusaku.

“Yusaku,” he calls softly, “You okay?”

Yusaku whimpers and his face twitches. His arms are pressed to his sides, his hands balled into fists. Shoichi puts a hand on one of Yusaku’s and squeezes gently. “Easy buddy,” he says, “It’s not happening. You’re safe here. Come on, come back to me.”

Yusaku gasps and opens his eyes. Shoichi loosens his hold on Yusaku’s hand. “It’s just me, it’s Shoichi,” he says. “We’re in my food truck. You fell asleep. It’s just us here.”

Yusaku is still slumped over the desk. Slowly, he pushes himself up, but he doesn’t pull out of Shoichi’s grasp. Shoichi grabs the water bottle from the desk and holds it out, and only then does Yusaku take his hand back. He drinks slowly, his hands shaking.

“Is there anything you need?” Shoichi asks.

Yusaku shakes his head. Shoichi hears the bell on the counter chime, and without looking away from Yusaku he calls, “Be right there!”

Yusaku takes a deep breath. “I’ll be okay,” he says.

“Okay,” Shoichi says, “I’m right here.”

He takes care of the customer, managing to stay calm and keep smiling even though he wants to close the truck up and keep talking Yusaku down. He keeps glancing over, but Yusaku seems to be doing okay.

When the customer leaves, Shoichi turns back to Yusaku. He looks like he’s calmed down considerably. Shoichi gets him another bottle of water.

“Thank you,” Yusaku says.

“No worries,” Shoichi says.

“No, really,” Yusaku insists.

For a few minutes, they sit quietly, Yusaku staring at his hands, Shoichi trying to balance watching Yusaku without staring at him too hard.

“I decoded it,” Yusaku finally says.

“I saw, good job,” Shoichi says. “I’m already working on a plan to get to her.”

Yusaku nods.

“Yusaku, do you want to stay at my place for a while?” Shoichi asks. “I only have one bedroom but I have room for a second bed, or if you want to share mine that’s okay, too.”

Yusaku looks up. “I…yeah. Yeah, I think I do.”

Shoichi feels some tension leave his shoulders. He smiles.


	2. Dead Man Walking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forgot to mention this last chapter but this story is named after the 5SOS song. I listened to it on loop while writing. This chapter's title also comes from a lyric from the song.
> 
> Oh also I know I tagged it with canon divergence but uh....Dr. Kogami is alive (for now) and Hanoi is it's own company. Just so you know.

Once Shoichi figured out Dr. Kyoko Taki’s daily routine, he was able to plan her death. He knew how he would do it, it was actually doing it and making look perfect that was the main issue. He needed to find an opening, a way to get access to her, and he needed to be able to do it without being seen. Though now that he had Yusaku, that part was easy. Yusaku hacked security cameras and Shoichi bumped into her on the street, the needle in his hand small enough that she likely wouldn’t realize she’d been stuck with it. By the time she got to her apartment she would be exhausted, and unable to fight back when Shoichi came up from behind her and put a bag over her head.

Now Kyoko Taki lies lifeless on her sofa, her hands frozen in the act of clawing at the tape around her neck. It’ll look like she changed her mind, but it was too late. Yusaku can’t stop staring at her.

“I’m taller than her,” he says after a few minutes of silence.

Shoichi doesn’t look up from the doctor’s computer. “You are,” he agrees. He is taking everything from her computer and duplicating it on another one, and he’s also logging her every keystroke because she can access Hanoi’s information remotely, and there’s bound to be a record of her login information. The data transfer is going to take a while, and they’ve already swept the house. The necklace Shoichi stole sits in his pocket, he can feel it against his thigh.

Yusaku is hugging himself. “She seemed so much bigger than me.”

“Of course she did,” Shoichi says gently, “You were a child.”

Yusaku scurries behind the doctor’s desk and stands beside Shoichi. “Does she have any personal notes on the kidnappings?”

“How do you mean? Like, her own observations?”

“Her thoughts,” Yusaku says. “Like a diary.”

Shoichi knows what he means, and does a quick keyword search—“sorry,” the word Yusaku is probably most curious about—and sure enough he quickly gets some results.

 _“I feel so sorry for the children,”_ he reads, _“Unfortunately there’s nothing I can do for them. I feel so guilty that I can’t sleep at night.”_

Yusaku lets out an anguished sound and Shoichi reacts, grabbing Yusaku before he can launch himself at Dr. Taki’s corpse.

“Yusaku, don’t,” he warns as Yusaku struggles, “We can’t leave any marks on her body, we can’t!”

“She was sorry?!” Yusaku shouts. “She should have called someone! She _could_ have called someone! She could have stopped it! What kind of a human—?”

“She’s not human,” Shoichi says. “She’s a monster, they all are, but she's dead now, she can’t hurt you anymore.”

Yusaku goes limp, and Shoichi doesn’t manage to compensate for his dead weight in time. They both fall, but Shoichi does manage to keep from landing on Yusaku’s legs. Yusaku doubles over, drawing his limbs in, making himself as small as possible.

“She couldn’t sleep,” he repeats. “She felt sorry for us. How could she even say that?”

Shoichi pulls Yusaku close and rubs his back. “I know it wasn’t enough, what I did to her,” he says. His throat is tight and heart feels like its breaking. He knows that for Yusaku, Dr. Taki’s words are like a knife in the gut, a pathetic excuse from someone who knew that what she was doing was wrong, and that’s what makes it so horrible. It would be one thing to face someone who was apathetic, those people are just plain horrible. But Dr. Taki said she felt sorry and still didn’t do anything. What kind of person could watch children suffer, know it was wrong, and still remain silent? That little taste of fear Taki felt when she realized she was dying, that was nothing next to the six months of fear the children had ten years ago.

Yusaku buries his head in Shoichi’s chest. “It isn’t fair,” he says, his voice shaking.

Shoichi hugs him. “I know, I’m so sorry,” he says. He looks at the computer—there’s still a lot of time before the data transfer is complete. “Do you want to leave?”

Yusaku shakes his head. “No, I want to stay here. I know she can’t hurt me.”

Shoichi rocks Yusaku slowly back and forth. “You’re very brave.”

Yusaku slowly relaxes as Shoichi continues rocking and talking to him. It’s been a month since Yusaku moved in, and Shoichi’s done this at least 3 times a week in that time. At first Yusaku tried to keep to himself, but Shoichi’s been through this with Jin, and he’s developed almost a sense for other people’s nightmares. At first Yusaku didn’t want to be touched, but after a few nights and a few times offering, Yusaku took Shoichi up on his hugs.

“I used to like her,” Yusaku says suddenly.

“Taki?” Shoichi asks.

Yusaku’s face is pale, and a little clammy. “When she would come in to check on me, I was happy to see her. She didn’t do the examinations, she didn’t poke me or take my blood. When she talked to me over the loudspeaker, she didn’t yell or threaten me. I thought she was nice. But she knew it was wrong.” Yusaku squeezes his eyes shut. “How…how could she act like she cared, but not do anything? How could I be so stupid as to think she was nice?!”

“Shhh, it’s not your fault,” Shoichi says. “Of course you thought she was nice. You were so scared, you were hurting, and confused. Of course you latched on to anyone good. That doesn’t make you stupid, it makes her a terrible person.”

He’s angry, not at Yusaku, but at the adults who should have known better. He considers letting Yusaku go and beat Taki’s body, but the police have to think it was suicide or the whole plan would be thrown off balance. So he holds Yusaku and talks to him softly, until the data transfer is complete and they get the hell out.

At home, the two of them settle into Shoichi’s bed with mugs of hot chocolate, and Shoichi opens up the laptop and starts putting the keystroke data through a decryption program. Yusaku leans against him, watching with a blank expression.

“Tired?” Shoichi asks.

Yusaku shakes his head, then shrugs. “Well, yes, but mentally exhausted. I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep.”

“That’s okay,” Shoichi says as he scans the data, “I’ve got her login information.”

Yusaku gets up and retrieves his own laptop. “Let’s get a move on, then,” he says.

 

* * *

 

The first time Shoichi seriously considered hunting down and killing the people who hurt his brother, he was thirteen and had just gotten a college degree in programming. His teachers and classmates used to ask what such a young genius would do after accomplishing so much so early in life, and Shoichi would smile and think about Jin, who was trapped inside his own head and barely seemed alive.

“You can do anything,” his teacher said. “I bet the national intelligence agencies would be very interested in hiring you!”

And Shoichi had smiled but bit his tongue so hard he bled. He had gone to the bathroom and rinsed his mouth out, and watching the blood swirl down the drain he had thought how unfair it was that Jin continued hurting, while those so-called doctors continued living their lives. Did they think about their victims? Were they sorry? He imagined grabbing a faceless doctor by the throat and shaking them, shouting “Do you know what you did?” before banging their head against something.

Eventually those fantasies escalated, and he imagined new and more painful ways to execute the people who had ruined his brother. It got worse once he got his hands on the police interviews and found out that Jin had seen cameras in his cell. Who would film the suffering of a child? Jin had been malnourished, dehydrated, dirty, and sick when he was rescued, but he had been surrounded by people and, he told police, routinely examined. Those people could have fed him, they clearly saw his body condition worsening, but they didn’t care. And what was it all for, in the end? To create artificial intelligence? What a joke.

So Shoichi never felt sorry for his homicidal feelings. He kind of knew that once he acted on those impulses, he would be able to avoid prison. Even if he was found out, by then he would have revealed the Hanoi project and Lost Incident to the world, and there would be no jury who wouldn’t sympathize with him, the older brother of a little boy who had been tortured. Besides, it wasn’t like he would be killing people with souls.

He watches Yusaku in the weeks following Taki’s murder, waiting to see if the knowledge of taking another person’s life will be too much. But if Yusaku is breaking down, he’s hiding it well. In a lot of ways, Yusaku seems to improve. He talks more, he asks if he can help out with the food truck, and while he still doesn’t eat in front of Shoichi, he’s not afraid to ask for help if he feels overwhelmed.

The news doesn’t release any reports on a suspicious death of anyone matching Taki’s appearance. Hanoi releases an internal memo about the loss of one of their own, and of course they block her login information from being used, but it doesn’t matter to Shoichi; he’s already created a backdoor into their system, and carefully covered his tracks after using Taki’s login credentials on the night of her death. He’s confident that no one knows he and Yusaku have infiltrated Hanoi’s deepest parts of their network.

Their list of names has been fleshed out—there’s not a lot of people who personally were involved in the Lost Incident, and Shoichi expected that. What Shoichi didn’t expect was to find that Kogami suspected his own son knew about the Incident (Aha, he did have a kid!) and apparently one of the children from the Lost Incident, codenamed Specter, now works for the company.

“What a freak,” Shoichi muses as he reads Specter’s file. Apparently he had been an orphan, and during the six months he was held captive by Hanoi, he actually felt the project gave him a sense of purpose and meant he was destined for great things. After being rescued and returned to the orphanage, he had run away and returned to the site where he had been held. Kogami then arranged for Specter’s release from the orphanage and his education. He didn’t adopt the child, but he certainly filled the role of a sponsor.

 “His antisocial behavior, along with his twisted, manipulative, sadistic nature and downright disengagement with the human race, shows that he is at his core a sociopathic misanthrope.” Shoichi glances at Yusaku, whose face is perfectly blank. “Those are Kogami’s own words.”

“What does Kogami want him around for, then?” Yusaku asks.

“Probably figures he’s more a risk if he’s set loose on the world,” Shoichi says.

“What do we do about him?”

Shoichi shrugs. “Ignore him, unless he becomes a problem for us. Maybe once we release all this stuff to the media he’ll turn against Hanoi. Maybe he won’t, but even then it won’t be a problem because the company will be destroyed.”

“He might try to stop us,” Yusaku presses. “He might come after us.”

“So, what do you think we should do about him?” Shoichi asks.

Yusaku looks at the picture of Specter in his file. “Doesn’t he have a proper name?”

“If he does, even Kogami didn’t write it down,” Shoichi says.

“I don’t want to have to hurt him. He is a victim, even if not the same way Jin and I were.”

“But would you?” Shoichi asks.

Yusaku stares at him. “Kogami thinks he’s a sociopath. I don’t know what to make of that.”

The bell on the food truck’s counter rings. Shoichi closes his laptop—he forgot where they were for a second—and puts on his apron. “Let’s hope we never meet the guy,” he says.

A few hours later, during another break between customers, Yusaku asks Shoichi about Kogami’s kid.

“If the kid did know about it, do you think that’s why Kogami sent him away?”

“That could be,” Shoichi says. He’s washing dishes not looking at Yusaku.

“What are we going to do about him?”

“Well, it’s not like he had a hand in the project, he was barely older than you,” Shoichi says. “Again, I say we leave him alone unless he proves himself to be a threat.” Shoichi looks up and catches sight of Yusaku’s face. “What’s the matter?”

“Do you have a picture of the kid? You said Kogami had them.”

“I didn’t take a shot of the picture, and I haven’t found one in the network. Why, what’s going on?”

Yusaku shakes his head. “I don’t know, it could be nothing. I just feel like…when I was there, I thought I heard a kid talking to me sometimes over the loudspeaker. As I got older I thought it was just Taki and I was so tired that I thought she was someone else but…maybe it was the kid.”

“Well, a picture isn’t going to tell you anything about his voice,” Shoichi says.

“I guess not,” Yusaku agrees. “D’you think he’s as angry as we are? At his dad?”

“I don’t recommend asking,” Shoichi says. “Not until we’re in the clear as far as our revenge plans go.”

“But if he wants his dad to suffer, should he be part of it?”

Shoichi finishes the dishes and wipes his hands. Yusaku mostly just looks curious, not like he actually wants to ask someone to help them kill his dad.

“I found you because you tried to murder a man, and that clued me in to your need for revenge. I’ve tried asking Jin and haven’t gotten anywhere, and I’m not sure what I would encounter if I met the other victims of the Incident. For now though, if I were to ask anyone to join in on this plot, it would be those remaining three we haven’t met.”

Yusaku nods. “If you were to go through with that, I would be okay with it. Maybe for the grand finale?”

“Maybe,” Shoichi agrees. He’s got an idea forming, one he’ll revisit once the next murder is over with.

 

* * *

 

Shoichi’s plan for Dr. Genome has been the same for years. Originally he planned it for Kogami, but after learning that Genome was the one in charge of collecting data (and by extension doing whatever it took to extract it) he changed the who in the plan, but not the how.

He would kidnap the man and kill him, probably on a weekend or some other time he was away from work. He would drive the body and the doctor’s car far out of town to a lake. He would wipe the car down, remove all trace of himself from it, then put the body in the drivers’ seat. With the car on and in drive, he would push it into the lake. He would bring a rake, to remove all traces of the tires from the lake’s embankment. If he played it right, it could be years before the car was found. With his hacking abilities, he could make sure there was no trace of the car on any traffic cameras, or he could figure out a way to create a false lead.

And it is so, unbelievably, almost laughably easy to carry out his plan.

On the day they plan to kill Genome, everything goes off without a hitch. Shoichi hides a car in the woods near the lake he previously picked out for the purpose of body disposal. He has all the supplies and equipment he’ll need for coverup stashed away nearby. Yusaku stays at the lake, laptop in hand, to run backup while Shoichi walks to the train station and heads back into the city. Genome’s weekend is predictable, Shoichi gets to him easily. Genome goes down with one blow to the back of his head. Yusaku monitors the cameras in the garage where Genome’s car is parked, the cameras that are going to lead the police on a false trail, and finally the cameras that line the route to the lake. It’s nearly midnight by the time Shoichi arrives with Genome’s body. Yusaku is waiting by the water’s edge, his tension and excitement palpable even before Shoichi gets out of the car. He pops the trunk and beckons Yusaku to follow him. They walk around, and Shoichi gestures grandly.

“The man of the hour,” he says.

Yusaku’s eyes widen. Genome is in the trunk, bound, gagged and probably concussed, but decidedly breathing. “I thought you were going to kill him.”

“I changed my mind,” Shoichi says. He pulls from the back seat of the car the large wrench he used to knock Genome out in the first place, and he holds it out to Yusaku. “Thought I would give you that honor, if you want it.”

Yusaku seems to take the wrench automatically, before the words have even fully registered. “The cops will know it was murder when they find him.”

“If they find him,” Shoichi corrects. “But we planned this so that we might not have that problem. We planned Taki’s death differently, so I couldn’t let you hurt her. This time we have someone that we planned to hide, so you can do whatever you want to him. Only if you want to, of course.”

Yusaku squeezes the wrench. “I do,” he says.

So Shoichi heaves Genome’s limp body out of the car, unsure if the man is awake or not and really not caring either way, and stands back. He thought he might wipe down the inside of the car while Yusaku did his thing, but now he finds himself unable to look away. Yusaku shows no hesitation, and the first blow lands directly on Genome’s spine. Yusaku swings his arms back, and his second blow hits Genome’s shoulder. Bone crunches and Genome lets out a wounded sound, which Yusaku ignores.

“I hope you go to hell!” Yusaku screams, his face twisted. He kicks Genome onto his back, Shoichi doesn’t even have time to see if the man’s eyes are open before Yusaku lands the wrench square in his face. On the next upswing blood goes flying, landing on the car, Shoichi, and Yusaku. But Yusaku isn’t finished, not by a long shot.

“You hurt me! You put your hands on me, you stuck me full of needles and you took from me even though I was sick! You’re a monster! _Look at what you did to me!”_

Shoichi is transfixed by Yusaku. The level of rage that goes into every blow, the things he screams as he brings the wrench down over and over, Shoichi underestimated the depth of Yusaku’s desire to hurt the people who hurt him. And Yusaku positively bludgeons the man to a pulp. By the time he’s done, staggering to one side and letting the wrench fall away, the body is unrecognizable. Shoichi’s not even sure the head is intact any more.

Yusaku kneels in the dirt. He’s covered in blood, it’s all over his hands and face—which is perfectly blank. Shoichi retrieves his cleanup materials and holds a towel out to Yusaku, but he completely ignores the towel and Shoichi. So, Shoichi focuses on the process of discarding the corpse. He puts on scrubs, a hairnet, and a plastic shield for his face, and wipes down the steering wheel and driver’s side of the car meticulously. He gets in the folds of the seat, every piece of the door and dashboard. He makes sure there’s no chance that any piece of his skin will come in contact with the body before he scoops it into the driver’s seat and puts the hands, about the only thing intact because of the way Shoichi bound him, on the steering wheel. They fall away immediately but it’s okay, there’s finger prints on the wheel now. Genome wears a chunky gold pinky ring, and Shoichi takes it.

With the car in drive, Shoichi then pushes it into the lake.  He stands on the shore and watches the car sink. This part of the lake has a severe drop-off very close to the shore. Shoichi sees the car teetering, the headlights bob, and then point down. After a few seconds he hears a thump. He then gets a rake and erases the tire tracks, as well as breaks up the blood spatter and gathers various clumps of gore and bone, which he also sweeps into the lake. Finally, he picks up the wrench and wraps it in a plastic bag, and kneels by Yusaku’s side.

“It’s time to go,” Shoichi says gently.

Yusaku nods and stands up. He follows Shoichi to the car silently, and allows Shoichi to wrap a shower curtain around him. The drive back to the city is silent, and when they park next to the food truck, Shoichi briefly holds Yusaku back from exiting so he can make sure there’s no cameras around to catch him covered in blood.

In the food truck, Yusaku sits at his desk, his face just as blank as it was back at the lake. Shoichi has a barrel stashed under the counter, and he takes the shower curtain, wrench, rake, and finally his own scrubs and dumps them all in the bucket.

“This is so completely unsanitary,” Shoichi remarks as he dumps lye in the barrel. “I could lose my permit for this.” Then he laughs, because they just killed a man, and to his relief, Yusaku laughs too.

Shoichi washes his hands and kneels by Yusaku’s side. “You okay?” He asks. “Wanna go home and get cleaned up?”

“I’m okay,” Yusaku says. “But…”

“But?”

“I’m hungry,” Yusaku says.

“Want me to make you something?” Shoichi asks.

Yusaku smiles. “Would you?”

“Of course. I mean, it’ll be a hotdog.”

“Perfect,” Yusaku says.

Shoichi fires up the grill. “What do you want on it?”

“Anything. Everything.”

“Wash your hands.”

He hears the sink running, then he focuses on making Yusaku the best goddamn hotdog he’ll ever have in his life, in fact he makes one for himself, too.

When he turns around he almost chokes. “Yusaku, you have blood all over your face.”

Yusaku’s hands are clean, but for Pete’s sake, he still looks like he walked out of a horror movie. Yusaku blinks at him. “So?”

Shoichi sighs, but places the hotdog in front of Yusaku. He takes a huge bite, eyes closed, and sighs.

“Good?” Shoichi asks.

Yusaku nods.

“Chew,” Shoichi cautions before taking a bite of his own hotdog.

“They always smell so good,” Yusaku says, mouth full, “You always ask if I want one, I’m sorry I never said yes.”

“It’s okay,” Shoichi says. “Jin’s like that too.”

Yusaku takes another huge bite. Are those tears in his eyes?

“I was always hungry,” he mutters. “They never fed me enough. I tried to save some, but they would come in and take it away.”

Oh god.

“It didn’t matter where I tried to hide it,” Yusaku says. Yes, he’s definitely crying. “Of course I learned they were watching me.” He sniffles. He swallows. “I never wanted people to watch me eat after that.”

“Mercy,” Shoichi whispers. He drops his own food and gets on his knees by Yusaku’s side again. “Shh, just…just eat. Do you want me to leave?”

Yusaku shakes his head. He inhales the rest of his food, and then Shoichi slides his plate over.

“You can have this.”

Yusaku looks like he wants to protest, but it’s fleeting. He inhales the second hotdog.

“Do you want more?” Shoichi asks. His knees are getting numb, but he doesn’t dare move.

Yusaku shakes his head. He wipes his mouth on his sleeve, and dried blood flakes away.

“Ready to go?” Shoichi asks.

Yusaku nods. Shoichi gets him in the car and they go home. Shoichi escorts Yusaku to the bathroom, and Yusaku hangs on to his shirt.

“Want me to stay?” Shoichi asks.

Yusaku nods.

They take turns in the shower, honestly they could probably just take a shower together at this point, but that’s a discussion to be had when Yusaku isn’t dead on his feet. After they’ve both cleaned up, they go to bed. Shoichi thinks Yusaku must sleep well, because he doesn’t wake up during the night at all.

 

* * *

 

It takes a few days for the news to air a story about a missing man, though of course they use Genome’s real name and don’t mention his employer’s name, only that it was only realized he was missing when he didn’t show up for work. Small comfort, nobody really missed him.

There’s one more person on the hit list before they go after Kogami himself—codename Faust, the man is an actual coward. He’s long stopped working for Hanoi, retired to the countryside. Kogami wrote that of all the people who might have flipped, it was this guy. Shoichi and Yusaku don’t even do much planning for his death, they simply scope out his house and learn that he lacks neighbors and has a river in his backyard. They go out to the house, tell him that they’re hopelessly lost. Faust is in the middle of giving them directions when he recognizes Yusaku, and Yusaku can tell.

“Oh god,” Faust gasps as Yusaku’s eyes go cold. “You…you’re one of them.”

He tries to run, but Yusaku grabs him and holds him down.

“I’m sorry,” Faust says, having the audacity to cry. “I wish I could take it back!”

Yusaku and Shoichi haul him to the river while the man pleads pathetically for mercy he doesn’t deserve. They hold his head in the water until he stops moving, then they shove the body in the river. Faust lost his glasses when Yusaku pinned him, and Shoichi scoops them up.

 

* * *

 

Shoichi checks the local online news for a week after that, and finally a small obituary is posted. By now, Kogami must know that Genome is dead. He must wonder if the one disappearance and two deaths in his inner circle meant that he was next, or if his partners in crime were simply getting overwhelmed by guilt, and if one of them had actually leaked anything. By now, Shoichi has enough evidence of the Lost Incident that Kogami could go ahead and try to destroy what he had, he wouldn’t be able to deny what had happened. Still, Shoichi doesn’t have what he wants most—the answer to his ‘why.’ He briefly considered torturing Genome for the information, but he wasn’t sure the man would break in a reasonable amount of time. Besides, he wants to hear those words from Kogami himself. And it’s almost time.

 

* * *

 

“Kogami has started to destroy some documents,” Yusaku reports as Shoichi serves him a hotdog.

“Mmm,” Shoichi says.

“I listened in to his voicemail. His son is coming home.”

“Interesting,” Shoichi says. “Did he say for how long?”

“Summer vacation. Starts in two weeks, apparently.”

Shoichi grins. “That’s perfect.”

Yusaku gives him a puzzled look.

“I have a surprise for you,” Shoichi says. “I’ll tell you about it a little later.”

A little later, when the teenage boy walks up to the food truck, paper in hand, looking mildly confused. Shoichi lets him in the back door, and turns to Yusaku.

“Yusaku, meet Homura Takeru. Takeru, Yusaku.”

The recognition is instant, though Yusaku once told Shoichi that he only saw the other children briefly on the way to the hospital. For a moment, the two stare at each other in silence.

“How did you…?” Yusaku asks.

“You two have a lot in common,” Shoichi says dryly.

Takeru blushes. “I was trying to hack Hanoi. Shoichi-san found me and um…cleaned up after me.”

“It wasn’t too bad,” Shoichi says. “He’s pretty talented for someone self-taught.” Shoichi claps his hands. “So, Yusaku, if that offer still stands, I know for a fact our friend Takeru here is interested.”

Yusaku nods and moves his chair over. “Let’s get to work. We have a man to kill.”

Takeru smiles. “Oh thank god, you were serious!”

“We don’t joke about murder here,” Shoichi says. “Takeru, what do you like on your hotdogs?”

“Everything,” Takeru says.

“Coming up!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don't come knocking on my door FBI.
> 
> Oh and that stuff about Specter is from the wiki, I posted a screenshot of it [here](http://rainbow-galaxy-supernova.tumblr.com/post/178044055406/yikes)


	3. Guts and Glory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title taken from the Fallout Boy song "Death Valley"

Shoichi goes home for Jin. He’s told his parents that he wants his little brother over for a night, maybe more if Jin is up for it. Just the two of them, he promises he’ll call the nurses if he doesn’t think he can handle it. No special reason, he just misses his brother.

So he picks Jin up in the afternoon. Jin comes outside with his shoulders hunched, hoodie on even though it’s hot as the surface of the sun. Mom kisses his cheek and dad pats his shoulder.

“Have fun!” Mom calls.

Shoichi helps Jin buckle his seat belt, and then they take off. After a few minutes, Shoichi pulls over. He can’t go into this if Jin doesn’t know the facts.

“Buddy, I lied to mom and dad. I’m not taking you to my apartment, because I have something for you.”

Jin looks over. “Something?” he repeats.

Shoichi nods. He reaches into his bag and pulls out a silver necklace, a pompous pinky ring, and a pair of glasses. “Do you know where I got these from?”

Jin looks the objects over, his expression shuttered. He nods.

“I got them,” Shoichi whispers. “I got them all. I hurt them like they hurt you, Yusaku and I both did.”

He’s mentioned Yusaku before, Jin knows he’s a victim too. “Yusaku helped?” Jin asks quietly.

Shoichi nods. “He did.”

“He liked it?”

“He did,” Shoichi confirms. “There’s just one person left, and we have him, but we haven’t hurt him yet.”

“Why not?” Jin asks.

Shoichi holds out his hand. “Because I want to know if you want to help.”

Jin holds Shoichi’s hand. “Help? Help…hurt someone?”

“Only if you want to,” Shoichi says. “He’s the man who started it all.”

Jin’s mouth twists. He squeezes Shoichi’s hand. “I want to help,” he says, venom in his voice.

Shoichi drives as fast as he can.

 

Takeru found the warehouse. Far out of town, no one around for miles. They have sensors set up to ensure that if anyone comes close, they’ll know about it. The warehouse is stocked with water, food, changes of clothes, knives, wrenches, bats, bleach, and various other things of questionable purpose. When Shoichi arrives with Jin, the others are already waiting outside.

They need no introductions, the five of them know who each other are, though two have opted not to give their names. They have the same haunted look in their faces, but their eyes hold anger.

“Ready?” Shoichi asks, unnecessarily. They know why they’re here, they’re ready.

Shoichi opens the doors and swings them out wide. Kiyoshi Kogami is hogtied in the middle of the floor.

The five child victims let out simultaneous howls of rage, and they all rush in at the same time.

Shoichi watches. Kogami had been gagged, but that soon goes flying. The kids are all shouting, swearing, and Kogami is screaming. Shoichi looks between Jin, who seems to be alive for the first time in years, and Yusaku, who may have just ripped one of Kogami’s ears off with his bare hand.

Maybe he’ll join them later, but for now he’s content like this. He’s had his moment, he made sure to question Kogami before this lot ripped him to actual pieces.

He finally got his answer, if one could consider it that. It was random. He looked for gentle, quiet children who he thought he could easily control through fear. Kogami initially thought Shoichi was after the artificial intelligence research, and told him that it was dangerous and he’d never reveal where he hid it. Shoichi had spit in his face.

“I’m here for my brother, you monster,” he said. “You truly don’t care about the children, do you?”

He certainly cares now.

 

It takes hours for the kids to finish with the body. Finally the last one to back away is the girl, who has been crying nonstop for the last hour as she slammed a wrench over and over into the bloody, pulpy mess that is Kogami’s skull.

When she collapses next to the other four, Jin wraps a blanket around her shoulders and pours her a cup of water. Her hands shake, but she sips the water slowly.

“What now?” Takeru asks.

“We tell the world,” Yusaku says. “Takeru and I already gave Shoichi permission to share everything that man had on us, including the recordings. It’s up to the rest of you what you want.”

“What about that other kid?” The fourth boy asks.

“I’m not putting his stuff out there,” Shoichi says. “Even if he works for the company—”

“Betrayed us,” the girl says viciously.

“It’s still his business,” Shoichi finishes.

“You can share mine,” Jin says.

“Same,” says the girl. “Just like, blur my face and hide my name.”

“I will,” Shoichi vows.

“Not me,” the boy says quietly.

“Okay,” Shoichi assures. “Do you want copies of them?”

The boy hesitates. “Maybe?”

“I’ll make you up a flashdrive,” Shoichi says. “You don’t have to look at the stuff if you don’t want to.”

They all agree to exchange contact information, but first they take turns washing up under the hose and changing their clothes. Shoichi and Yusaku go first, and then after making sure Jin will be okay, they go retrieve their sensors. By the time they come back everyone is washed and changed, and they pile their clothes together, close to what’s left of the body, and douse them in gasoline. Shoichi unwinds a long rope which has been soaking in lantern oil and lays it in a line, starting at the door and leading up to the clothes. Once they make sure that everything they need to take back with them is out of the warehouse, Shoichi splashes more gasoline around to make sure the whole place will go up. Then he lights the rope up, and they start walking away. As they’re on the road, already far away, they start to see the thick, black smoke.

“Yusaku?” Shoichi prompts.

Yusaku opens his laptop. “Starting upload now.”

 

* * *

 

Shoichi takes Jin home that night, as he just wants to sleep in his own bed. Jin hugs him before he goes, and whispers that he’s the greatest big brother to ever live. Jin has spoken more today than he has in years, he even talked to strangers. Maybe he’ll only continue to get better.

When Shoichi gets back home, he finds Yusaku sitting on the floor, back against the couch, and hunched over his laptop.

“What’s up?”

“Working on hiding that girls’ identity.” Yusaku says.

Shoichi sits next to Yusaku. “Tired?”

Yusaku shakes his head, but he does lean his head on Shoichi’s shoulder. “So, what now?”

“I suppose we wait for the news to break,” Shoichi says.

“And then?” Yusaku prompts. “What about like…hacking and all that?”

Shoichi thinks he knows what Yusaku is asking, but he doesn’t want to assume. “We’ll still have to keep an eye on them. Make sure they’re not pulling any sneaky stuff, make sure they don’t find us.”

“Do you want me to leave?” Yusaku asks.

“No,” Shoichi says. “But if you want to, we can still be friends, can’t we?”

“I don’t think I want to leave,” Yusaku says.

“Then you don’t have to,” Shoichi assures. “And you can still come to the food truck every day, do your homework if you feel like it. Or I can teach you to cook. I can cook other things besides hotdogs, you know.”

“I didn’t know,” Yusaku says. “What can you cook?”

“Well, I can follow pretty much any recipe,” Shoichi says. “I’ve been told my lasagna is pretty good, and I can make konkatsu, and, well, they’re a pain to make from scratch and it’ll take me hours but I can make dumplings.”

“How about soup?” Yusaku asks. “Like, Zōni?”

“I can make that,” Shoichi says. It’s a soup traditionally eaten on New Year’s Day, but it’s good stuff.

“It’s my favorite,” Yusaku says. “I always got so excited on New Year’s to eat it. It was all I could think about sometimes, when I was in that cell.”

“I can make it for you,” Shoichi says.

Yusaku hesitantly turns his hand over, palm up, and kind of holds it out to Shoichi. “Can you teach me, too?”

Shoichi takes Yusaku’s hand. “I can absolutely teach you.”

 

* * *

 

The shit hits the fan less than 10 hours before the body in the burned-out warehouse is identified as Kiyoshi Kogami. The press waste no time wondering if Kogami got what he deserved, especially when the videos of some of the children screaming and crying in their cells is uploaded. Shock starts in Japan and soon envelopes the world, even stations in other counties broadcast the story that children were tortured, using a card game, all in the effort to create artificial intelligence. Online, many people say that whoever killed the guy so brutally should be made a national hero.

The three named survivors of the Hanoi Project, as it’s now being called, come together to hold a press conference. Jin even agrees to sit in front of the reporters, but he asks if Shoichi can sit with him, and of course Shoichi agrees. The reporters aren’t allowed to ask questions, Yusaku, Takeru, and Jin have prepared statements that they’re going to read.

They show the print outs of emails they received, claiming to be from someone who knew about what happened ten years ago, asking if they would be okay with their trauma being made public if it meant that the world would finally know what Hanoi Inc. had been up to. Jin quietly explains that his brother helped him set up his email account so he could play games online, and he told Shoichi to respond ‘Yes’ to the email. Yusaku and Takeru both say they thought the email came from someone within Hanoi, maybe someone who found out and was angry, or even one of the doctors who felt guilty. They were just as shocked as anyone when four recent, overlooked murders/disappearances were connected to the project.

“We only knew our captors by aliases,” Takeru says. “And we never heard Hanoi being mentioned.”

“It’s been a rough ten years,” Yusaku says. “I felt like the police had given up trying to find the truth, and it hurt. Now I’m left to wonder if a large company like Hanoi might have tried to wrap the incident up on purpose.”

“Maybe we’ll finally get some answers to that,” Takeru says.

Shoichi takes over. “It was a shock to have all of this brought into the open. For years my family was told that it would hurt the investigation if we went public with Jin’s story, and when he was a child we didn’t want him traumatized further. We hope our privacy will be respected, and we hope that justice will be served. We also hope that the family of those who are dead and named in this report will…will be okay,” he finishes. He has no idea what else to say about that, and he thought about it for a long time.

The press conference ends, and the reports that are released talk about how small the three boys seemed, and how nervous they were. Nobody thinks they had anything to do with the deaths, surely it must have been an adult. The families of the victims were interviewed, but all had solid alibies, and of course, so did all the children—Yusaku and Shoichi made sure of that.

Kogami’s son, Ryoken, arrives in Japan for his father’s funeral. He gives a short statement to the press, saying that regardless of what his father did, he was still murdered, and he hopes the police remember that murder is a crime.

“In addition,” he says, looking into a camera, “I am following a lead of my own, one that suggests my father answered to somebody else in the attempted creation of the AI.”

“What a tool,” Takeru scoffs. “Can’t we change the channel?”

“No way dude, people are watching,” Shoichi says.

“Of course they are, the TV is gigantic and on the side of a building,” Takeru says. “But it’s not like they’d have to know who did it.”

Takeru has become a fixture at the food truck. He’s moved into the neighborhood and goes to the same school as Yusaku, and to outsiders it’s just him coping with everything by being closer to his fellow survivors. Well, that’s true, but also killing a man together does tend to bring people close.

“Go wash dishes if you don’t want to watch,” Shoichi says.

“Pay me,” Takeru says.

“Not a chance,” Shoichi laughs.

Takeru makes a face.

“He could turn out to be a threat,” Yusaku says. He’s standing next to Shoichi, head hanging out the food truck’s window as he watches the report. “We made our identities public, he could find us.”

“And do what?” Shoichi asks. “We made our identities public, but now so did he. It’s not like people wouldn’t notice if he showed up and then something happened to us.” He looks around and makes sure they’re alone. “Besides, I arranged the murder of four people and personally killed two of those people. I think I can handle that scrawny tool.”

“What about Specter, could you handle him?” Takeru asks, smirking.

Shoichi shivers. “I could, but I wouldn’t want to.”

For a while there it looked like Specter could be a problem, too. According to insiders in Hanoi Inc., he totally lost it when the reporters started bashing Kogami and the Hanoi Project. He said it was the only thing that gave him purpose in life, and he was going to hunt down the people who did this. He may or may not have been institutionalized. Frankly, the guy gave Shoichi the willies.

Takeru stands and stretches as the news report turns to speculation about what will happen to Hanoi Inc. “Alright you lovebirds, I’ll leave you to tend to your nest.”

“That’s not funny,” Shoichi says.

“And it doesn’t make sense,” Yusaku adds.

“Funny to me!” Takeru calls, waving at them over his shoulder.

Once they’re alone, Shoichi puts his arms around Yusaku’s waist and kisses the back of his head. “I would kill him if he tried to hurt you.”

“How romantic,” says Yusaku, resting his hands on top of Shoichi’s.

“I’m sorry, how about this then? I would slay anyone who dares to harm—oof,” he gasps, as Yusaku elbows his stomach.

“Quit while you’re ahead,” Yusaku warns, but it’s softened by his smile.

 

* * *

 

Nothing is perfect, not by a long shot, and Shoichi knew it wouldn’t be. Jin is improving, but he still needs round the clock care, and he’ll probably never be able to function like he could have, had he never been taken. Still, he’s asked to be tutored and he regularly joins his parents for dinner, even asked for Yusaku and Shoichi to come for a meal.

Sometimes Takeru doesn’t go to school, instead he hangs around the food truck and keep his head down, or grabs a broom and starts to sweep the truck.

“Sweeping is so therapeutic, don’t you think?” He said once. Shoichi bought him a broom he could use outside the truck, and sometimes he just goes around sweeping sidewalks.

They don’t see the other two kids, but they’re in the group chat Takeru set up, and they talk a lot through that, about the good things and the bad ones.

Yusaku still has nightmares, no as often as before, but he shoots out of bed in a cold sweat, pale as death, and staring at invisible horrors nonetheless. Now though, Shoichi cuddles him back to the land of the living, brushes the hair from his forehead, and kisses the bridge of his nose, the freckles on his cheeks, and the corners of his eyes.

“Why do you do that?” Yusaku always asks when Shoichi trails kisses under Yusaku’s eyes.

“Your eyelashes are ridiculous. Like, in a good way,” Shoichi answers. Or he’ll say that it’s because the sweat gathers there and it’s like a salt lick. Or simply that Yusaku’s eyes are one of his most striking features. Basically he says anything to break the tension, make Yusaku laugh or blush. There’s a lot of things they need to be prepared for, a lot they don’t know, so they might as well get in the laughs wherever they can.

They deserve to be happy, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might revisit this last chapter as the series goes on and we find out for sure who the last two victims are. I might simply add physical descriptions of them, or I might rewrite the death scene and flesh it out some more. I might even write more if Ryoken and Specter do something in canon which prompts me to have my Yusaku and Shoichi to consider them a threat. But as of right now, this is it. 
> 
> I hope you found this…therapeutic? Cathartic? Horrifying? It’s what I was going for.


End file.
